Barack Obama weighed in on the nation’s free speech crisis after TV host Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off air for mocking the MAGA reaction to the murder of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
The 31-year-old activist was shot dead on Sept. 10 as he took questions at an open-air event at Utah Valley University, his death immediately blamed by President Donald Trump and his allies on the “radical” far left.
In response, the former president issued a pointed reminder that freedom of speech protects all voices, whether supportive of or opposed to Trump and his MAGA movement.
“This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents,” Obama wrote on X.
He shared two articles to illustrate his point—a New York Times opinion piece by former attorney David French titled, “Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel and the Future of Free Speech in America”; and a snippet from Frederick Douglass’s 1860 essay entitled, “A Plea for Free Speech in Boston,” published by the National Constitution Center.
“First there’s this piece by David French, who devoted much of his legal career to defending the First Amendment rights of conservative writers and scholars,” the former president wrote. “Second, it’s worth reading this excerpt from Frederick Douglass.”
In his column, French argued it is “hard to grasp the magnitude of the emerging threat to free speech” in the country, and accused the Trump administration of using Kirk’s death “as a pretext to threaten a sweeping crackdown on President Trump’s political and cultural opponents.”
French also torched Attorney General Pam Bondi after she vowed to “target hate speech” following Kirk’s assassination.
“There is no First Amendment exception for so-called hate speech,” wrote French.
Obama’s statement followed controversy over Kimmel’s monologue after Kirk’s death, in which he referenced Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect in the killing.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” the host said.
Authorities on Tuesday charged Robinson in connection with the killing. Trump and other Republicans claimed the incident reflected “radical” left-wing violence, despite a series of violent attacks against Democrats earlier this year.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson on Thursday accused Obama of being the “architect of modern political division” in America, saying Obama demeaned “millions of patriotic Americans who opposed his liberal agenda as ‘bitter’ for ‘cling[ing] to guns or religion.’”
“Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency, more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it,” Jackson told the Daily Beast.
“His division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as ‘deplorables,’ or ‘fascists,’ or ‘Nazis.’ If he cares about unity in America, he would tell his own party to stop their destructive behavior.”
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